Linebacker has special Big Game family pedigree
After the first practice of Big Game week, Cal head coach Justin Wilcox called for linebacker David Ortega Jr. to break down practice — a role normally reserved for captains and position-group leaders.
No one even questioned why a scout-teamer, who has played in only one game during his four-year career, was leading the practice-closing huddle.
There’s not a player on the roster who understands the Cal-Stanford rivalry better than Ortega, who grew up at Memorial Stadium and whose family has been part of the Berkeley community for 30 years.
“I’ve wanted to be a Cal football player ever since I was born,” Ortega said. “I’ve been coming to Cal practices and games forever. This was like my day care center, and being here for four years as a student and football player has been everything I ever dreamed about.”
Ortega’s father is the program’s all-time-leading tackler with 525. He was part of the team that pulled off one the series’ most remarkable upsets in 1986 and pounded out 20 tackles in the Big Game three years later.
Since his playing career, which earned selection into the school’s Hall of Fame, David Ortega Sr. has been a constant on campus. He worked in a variety of positions for the football team for 12 years and has been the director of parent services and communications for the campus for five years.
“Everywhere I go, if I say my name, people have great stories about watching him play and about meeting me when I was a kid,” the younger Ortega said. “… I try to keep it on the low. I don’t want to draw too much attention to myself, but it’s been special to learn from someone who did so much and who did such amazing things here.”
The elder Ortega moonlights as the defensive coordinator at Acalanes High and was the answer to a question on the big scoreboard at Memorial Stadium just a few weeks back. His tackles total had some of the Bears’ most productive defensive players in a state of contemplation even this week.
“That’s more than 125 a season,” senior defensive tackle Tony Mekari said.
Senior linebacker Raymond Davison III said: “How?”
Mekari: “That’s insane. Were they holding people up, so he could come get in on the tackle?”
Davison: “At camps, I’m like: ‘Y’all need to listen to this dude. He had 525 tackles in the Pac. That’s more than you’ll get in high school and college careers combined. The dude is a legend.’ ”
The family name means so much in Berkeley that two days after David Ortega Jr.’s birth at Alta Bates in 1995, Joe Starkey had announced the news on KGO before the elder Ortega had gotten to campus to hand out chocolate cigars. Six weeks later, David Jr. was at Cal’s 29-24 loss to Stanford. He has attended just about every other rivalry game since then, including the Bears stopping a sevengame skid in the series in 2002 and their last win, a 34-28 upset in 2009.
“I’ve just been itching for another win since then,” he said. “It’s been tough not being able to get that win, but this game always brings out a little extra fire.
“It would be a huge step for the program. I think we’re going in the right direction with Coach Wilcox getting us back to the fundamentals. Taking the next step would be huge. I know everybody wants it so bad. It would bring in extra recruits. It’d make people want to come back to Cal and get fans in the stadium. It’d make people want to follow it and make it that much bigger.”
Wilcox was Cal’s linebackers coach from 2003 through ’05, when he worked with David Sr. and got to know David Jr. for the first time. Back in Berkeley as a first-time head coach, Wilcox has loved having the younger Ortega as part of the scoutteam defense and special teams for weekly preparation.
The coach promoted Ortega to the travel team this season and managed to get the backup onto the field for the first time during the 37-3 upset of thenNo. 8 Washington State on Oct. 13. In a Rudy-like moment, Ortega rushed onto the field and probably should have been credited with his first career tackle.
“He earned that,” Wilcox said. “He works his tail off. He hasn’t gotten to play as much as I’m sure he would have liked, but he’s a Cal guy through and through. He’s got the respect of his teammates, and that’s always a really good measure of people.”
After the Washington State game, Ortega darted over to his parents and embraced them.
“It was amazing,” he said. “To me, that’s one of the reasons why I came here.”